POLL-Obama maintains post-convention lead over Romney

September 09, 2012|Reuters

* Obama remains at 47 percent, Romney 43 percent

* More say that Obama "will protect American jobs"

* Daily rolling poll conducted over previous four days

By Alina Selyukh

WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - President Barack Obamaremained ahead of Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romneyin a Reuters/Ipsos released on Sunday, maintaining a boost inpopularity that followed the Democratic National Convention.

Of the 1,419 likely voters polled online over the previousfour days, 47 percent said they would vote for Obama and 43percent for Romney if the Nov. 6 U.S. election were held today.

The president's margin over Romney in the daily rolling pollwas unchanged from Saturday's numbers, turning up the heat onRepublican strategists who were hoping for a more mutedpost-convention "bounce" for Obama in the wake of Friday'srelease of weak employment numbers.

"It means (Democrats) are on good footing going into therest of the election," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said.

Obama's lead already was more sustained than a smaller andshorter-lived boost that Romney enjoyed after the Republicanconvention finished in Tampa, Florida on Aug. 30, Clark said.The Democratic convention ran through Thursday night inCharlotte, North Carolina.

"The task is now to stay on the message as we're still quitea ways away from the election," Clark said, reiterating herprediction that the gap in poll numbers between Obama and Romneyis likely to narrow and stay close up all the way up to Nov. 6.

Asked which of the two "will protect American jobs," 42percent of 1,660 registered voters picked Obama while 35 percentsided with Romney.

"The public view of the economy is much more about personalperception than reality," Clark said, explaining that few peoplepay close attention to numbers or statistics. "The fact that thedialogue is in the public sphere and Obama has been defendinghis record, it's possible a little bit of that is sticking."

At the same time, 72 percent of registered voters surveyedsaid the national economy and national deficit were on the wrongtrack, while 66 percent said the same about jobs andunemployment and 57 percent about the direction of things in thecountry in general, according to Sunday's poll numbers.

Sunday's findings wrap up a series of daily rolling pollsaimed at gauging sentiment during the two weeks of partyconventions. For the survey, a sample of registered voters wasinterviewed online from Sept. 5-9.

The precision of Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measuredusing a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has acredibility interval of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points forall respondents.